Douglas Fleming

Citizenship and race in second-language education

This article explores the links between citizenship and race in second-language education through an examination of the ways in which citizenship is linked to English language proficiency within a key Canadian federal adult English as a Second Language assessment document, the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB). It uses data and updates the analysis from a previously treated study that compared the way in which citizenship was conceptualised within that document with a sampling of adult second-language learners in a federally funded ESL programme. The participants in the study from which these data are drawn described becoming Canadians predominantly in terms of human rights, multicultural policy, and the obligations of being citizens. The CLB, however, rarely referred to citizenship in these terms. Instead, it described being Canadian in terms of normative standards, including various forms of social behaviour, which implied the existence of a dominant and singular culture to which second-language learners had to conform. This article argues that these normative standards have the effect of racialising second-language learners in this context.

Second Language Research, the Construction of Gendered Identity, and the Deleuzian Concept of Becoming Woman

How is gendered subjectivity constructed? How does the experience of immigrating to a new country and learning a new language affect this construction? Do Deleuze and Guattari have anything to offer to Second Language Education (SLE) theory, research, and practice in this regard? This article explores how the concept of becoming woman works through a reexamination of the data pertaining to gender in a study of adults learning English while negotiating sites of tension, conflict, and contradiction within their experiences of immigration. I argue that becoming woman has significant explanatory power in conceptualizing the relationship between the two genders in the context of second language immigration.

The practicality and relevance of peace in an EFL teacher training program: Applications and implications

ABSTRACT This study examines the practicality and relevance of positive peace (Galtung, 1964) in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher training. It focuses on a collaborative three-month study abroad program, funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council, for EFL teachers from rural communities in western China to participate in an intensive professional development program hosted at a large Canadian university. Beginning with the premise that the teaching and learning of Global English is not apolitical, and that the power imbalance between Center based institutions and remote Periphery communities should not be ignored, we consider how the concept, and practice, of positive peace can counter English linguistic and cultural hegemony. In Summer 2016, thirty-five teachers from western China attended the program; thirteen agreed to participate in interviews and focus groups for research purposes. Thematic analysis was used to first code the data for prominent themes with subsequent rounds of interpretive coding to uncover the presence of latent concepts expressed through counter-discourse, such as peace. Through this analytical approach, the data revealed that the visiting teachers (1) disagreed with host instructors on the utility of specific pedagogic approaches; (2) prioritized their own local curriculum; and (3) hoped to teach their hosts about China, as well as learn about EFL pedagogy and Canadian culture. By reading the data through the framework of positive peace, the counter-discourse between visiting teachers and host instructors/researcher can be viewed as sites of peace-building where expertise can be contested, professional identities reasserted, and once silenced voices heard.

Agencement, Second Language Education, and Becoming: A Deleuzian Take on Citizenship.

ABSTRACT This article makes novel use of the Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts of becoming and agencement to frame qualitative research on how youth from second language immigrant families conceptualize citizenship. Even though our work here is primarily conceptual, we refer to aspects of a previously published study to concretely illustrate these concepts for the reader. The study in question found that the participants exhibited a mixture of conceptualizations of citizenship, some of which aligned with dominant trends in citizenship education. Other conceptualizations presented dimensions of citizenship that were unexpected and intensive. In our discussion, we use two Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between competing discourses on citizenship in the context of second language education. We argue, in short, that becoming and agencement help “disturb” the once axiomatic linkage between citizenship education and the nation-state and challenge clichéd notions of “global citizenship.”

Citizenship Education in Canada, Past and Present

Canadian youth are growing up in uncertain times and they are aware of this. A nation-wide study found that youth’s major concerns were lack of employment prospects, costs of education and student debt, costs of living, and the environment (MacLean, Shifts shaking Canadian youth, says report from Community Foundations of Canada. Retrieved from http://communityfoundations.ca/generation-flux-seismic-shifts-shaking-canadian-youth-says-report-from-community-foundations-of-canada, 2012; Morrison, The top five challenges facing Millenials in Canada. Retrieved from http://abacusinsider.com/canadian-millennials/top-5-challenges-facing-millennials-canada-millennials/#sthash.KgBNvsBa.dpu, 2013).